[ARC5] Cleaning Capacitor Oil Leakage

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

I haven't looked the process up, but as I recall, asphalt (the road 
surfacing material) is or can be refined from tars or from liquid crude oil.  It 
has a higher melting temperature than generic tar, being a solid in the human 
comfort zone (roughly 115F and below).  As a solid, it could be classed as 
"machinable".  

In a message dated 10/27/2012 23:06:25 PM Central Daylight Time, 
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com writes: 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <WA5CAB at cs.com>
> To: <Arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2012 8:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARC5] Cleaning Capacitor Oil Leakage
> 
> 
> >Technically, the oil is not toxic.  Even if it does 
> >contain PCB's, and most
> >does not, you will not curl up and die within a few 
> >minutes to a few hours
> >of getting a little of it on your hands.
> >
> >As for the dark pasty potting compound, generically it is 
> >a tar.  As in tar
> >and feather.
> >
> 
>      I must have curled up for some other reason then, 
> perhaps because I have a cold. Anyway I am straightened out 
> again.  I was not afraid it would kill me instantly but have 
> no desire to expose myself any more than avoidable to 
> carcinogens.  Hard to do since the world is full of them.
>      The potting compound I melted out of some other bathtub 
> caps sure looks like asphalt and even has that sort of odor. 
> Similar stuff leaks out of overheated transformers.
>      Anyway, thank you for the reassurance from all the 
> sensible people on the list.
> 

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480